Here’s Who Topped PRS’ Most Played UK National Football Anthems Chart

The fans have spoken! As the UEFA Euro 2020 heats up, U.K. collecting society PRS for Music has revealed its list of top UK national football anthems.

Ahead of the European football championship, the popular 1990s track “Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home)” has placed No. 1 on PRS’ Most Played UK National Football Anthems Chart, according to data compiled by the organization.

Released 25 years ago, “Three Lions” — known for its popular lyric “It’s coming home” — has spent 45 weeks on the UK Official Singles Chart, peaking at No. 1. The anthem was originally performed by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds.

A fan favorite, “Three Lions” served as the official song of the England team at Euro ’96. Two years later, the enduring track was re-released as an unofficial anthem for England’s FIFA World Cup campaign.

PRS’ Most Played UK National Football Anthems Chart ranks the official Football Association, FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro songs for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The list is based on streams and downloads across online music and video-on-demand platforms in 2020.

Placing second on the list is “World in Motion,” performed by British rock band New Order with the English national football team (credited as Englandneworder) for the 1990 World Cup. Coming in at No. 3 on the chart is “This Time (We’ll Get it Right),” by the England World Cup Squad ’82 for that year’s World Cup.

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Is ‘All Too Well’ the 10-Minute Song on Taylor Swift’s Re-Recorded ‘Red’?

Taylor Swift’s announcement about her re-recorded Red was wrapped with a big hint that die-hard fans might finally get a gift they’ve been wanting for years: the original, 10-minute long opus of her heartbreaking album classic “All Too Well.”

“This will be the first time you hear all 30 songs that were meant to go on Red,” Swift wrote in Friday’s (June 18) reveal that Red (Taylor’s Version) will be released on Nov. 19. “And hey, one of them is even ten minutes long.”

It’s important to note that Swift has not officially confirmed the title of the 10-minute song that will appear on Red (Taylor’s Version). But on Twitter, she accessorized her casual mention of a 10-minute track with an emoji of a cozy red scarf.

Below, read on about that clue and others that point to “All Too Well” being the super long Red song that Swift is teasing.

The Legendary Old Scarf

The scarf emoji in Swift’s recent tweet just might be a very obvious wink at a certain scarf that has taken on a life of its own to Swifties — the one left in a drawer to be immortalized in “All Too Well.”

“But you keep my old scarf from that very first week ’cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me,” she sings. “You can’t get rid of it ’cause you remember it all too well.”

The 10-Minute Track Length

“All Too Well” is the first song Swift wrote for the breakup album Red, and clocking in at just about five-and-a-half minutes, it’s already the longest recording on the original 2012 album’s track list. In several interviews over the years, both Swift and co-writer Liz Rose have referred to even longer versions of the song that the public has never had the privilege of hearing — including one that’s just about 10 minutes long, with a number of verses that didn’t make the final cut.

“It was a day when I was just, like, a broken human, walking into rehearsal just feeling terrible about what was going on in my personal life,” Swift recalled of the origins of “All Too Well” on a podcast with Rolling Stone. “I ended up sort of just playing four chords over and over again, and the band started kicking in … People just started playing along with me. I think they could tell I was really going through it. I just started singing and riffing and sort of ad-libbing this song that basically was ‘All Too Well.’ It started with, ‘I walked through the door with you, the air was cold.’ It literally just was that song, but it had probably seven extra verses and it included the F-word.”

She continued, “Basically I remember my sound guy was like, ‘Hey, I burned a CD of that thing that you were doing in case you want it … I ended up taking it home and listening to it, and I was like, ‘I actually really like this, but it definitely is like 10 minutes long and I need to pare it down.’”

She then went to Rose, one of her longtime songwriting collaborators, to help her do just that. “She had this long song — story, basically — that she had put to music,” Rose recalled.

The F-Word’s Appearance

As Swift revealed, a 10-minute “All Too Well” with profanity exists. The original Red was, of course, never marked as explicit, since neither the F-word nor any other swear words made it onto the 2012 album.

However, upon the announcement of Red (Taylor’s Version), Swift detectives might have noticed that her official webstore lists both clean and explicit versions of the album to pre-order. Could the as-yet-untitled 10-minute track, presumed to be an angsty “All Too Well,” be the culprit?

“I thought it was too dark, too sad, too intense, too many things,” Swift, who seemed surprised that a non-single became such a fan-favorite over the years, has said of “All Too Well.”

Will fans only have to wait 22 more weeks to find out just how dark, sad and intense it was in its original form, when Red (Taylor’s Version) arrives?

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See the Best Fan Responses to Taylor Swift’s Surprise ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ News

Swifties are a pretty savvy bunch, deciphering clues and Easter eggs that Taylor Swift drops like breadcrumbs across her social media profiles and public appearances. Even so, fans — who were convinced that the next re-recorded release following this year’s No. 1 album Fearless (Taylor’s Version) would be a reworked 1989 — were thrown off on Friday (June 18) with the announcement that the next re-recorded album in Swift’s catalog would be her fourth, Red (Taylor’s Version).

When it originally dropped in 2012, Red became her third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, moving 1.21 million copies in its first week. When the year wrapped, Red was the second best-selling LP of 2012 with 3.11 million, following Adele’s 21. Red also boasts her first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”; four top 20 hits (“Begin Again,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “22” and “Red”) would follow.

Fans quickly turned to Twitter to express their excitement and surprise, celebrating the upcoming Nov. 19 release of a 30-track version of the first album that found Swift comfortably experimenting past the confines of country and folk. See some of the best responses from fans below.

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Mach-Hommy & Westside Gunn Are Having Their Ric Flair-Bobby Heenan Championship Run

When wrestling legend Ric Flair entered the 1992 WWE Royal Rumble, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan stood right by the 16-time world champion as he dominated the competition. Flair entered the Rumble at number three and lasted a full hour to become the victor in the annual event. 

Westside Gunn, a big Ric Flair fan, likens himself and New Jersey rapper Mach-Hommy to Heenan and the Nature Boy. On Mach-Hommy’s new album, Pray For Haiti, the long-awaited reunion that fans thought would never happen came to life and showed the power of two strong forces coming together. 

“He’s Flair and I’m Bobby,” Westside Gunn tells Billboard. “Mach was with me first when I started Griselda, and now, he told me to turn him up, so I turned his ass up [laughs].”

Pray For Haiti is the first collaboration between Westside Gunn and Mach-Hommy since they first went their separate ways in the early 2010s. Fans came up with all types of theories as to why there was friction, but at the end of the day, as Westside Gunn says, “We picked up right where we left off.” 

Time apart couldn’t tarnish the impeccable synergy Mach-Hommy and Westside Gunn show on Pray For Haiti. Mach leads the way with his complex array of bars, while Gunn’s ability to curate a well-rounded tracklist brings the masked rapper’s vision to life. “Who the f–k I’m supposed to call?” says Mach when asked why Gunn was the best choice to executive produce his album. “There’s somebody else for me to call? He’s bringing the message in a form that they can receive, and he gets me. That’s rare.” 

Flair didn’t need “The Brain” to have a successful run in the WWE, and the same can be said about Mach and his music. The “Stellar Ray Theory” rapper built a revered body of work without any real promotion or rollouts, and he made a name for himself with his mysterious yet intriguing persona. 

Pray For Haiti is something of a coming-out party for Mach, who says he’s having a different type of fun this go around. Every album released up until Pray For Haiti was Mach having fun for himself, and now he’s ready to share that fun with fans. “I kept everybody in mind when I was having fun with Pray For Haiti,” Mach says. “What I’ve been doing for the past couple of years was be in my zone by myself, doing what I f–king like. But now I’m thinking in terms of us and we and stuff like that.”

Mach-Hommy is also making himself slightly more available to fans with this new chapter in his career. Interviews aren’t his thing, and there’s barely any information on him besides the music he’s put out. You won’t find Mach on social media either, but he realizes through Gunn the usefulness behind putting himself out there. 

“I don’t like this press s–t, but that’s the whole point in having friends — because you get access through a different lens. And social media, I use it, but it’s just being used differently,” Mach admits to Billboard. “I can’t give all the game away, but I found a way to be there without having a burner account. Real talk, we need one social media per ten n—as, for real. We need to start carpooling to work and stop polluting the air.”

For Gunn, the reunion with his longtime friend is a chance for him to display what he calls “the top two ears for production of all time.” It’s a bold statement to make, but one that’s worth listening to, especially when that person was instrumental in resurrecting a dormant sound. 

“Some people aren’t even confident to even let a Westside Gunn take the lead because they want to be the ones doing what I’m doing,” Gunn says confidently. “When you have someone that understands what I actually do, and they realize what they do, it’s undeniable. That’s why I really don’t like doing features, because I gotta rap on a beat that they picked. I do what I can, but I don’t do features — because other people don’t have the ear, they just have the money, and it’s never about the money. So my challenge was to give him the craziest beats I can hear him rap on.”

Westside Gunn is helping Mach achieve a monumental goal with Pray For Haiti, just like “The Brain” led Flair to a WWE championship. Pray For Haiti is not only an album, but a piece of Haitian culture that Mach is injecting into hip-hop. “I’m at the point in my life that I don’t need an excuse to do the inevitable,” Mach tells Billboard. “I was always headed towards this just off the way they nurtured and brought me up. I have the Pray For Haiti trust fund, and we’re putting money in that to give back to the country. Any country that’s having the type of difficulties Ayiti has had as a nation for so long, that’s real generational poverty and societal ills.” 

Westside Gunn added, “I’m an honorary Haitian now. It feels good to do something for the country. Mach has the foundation that people can donate to and get things going. I want to support him for that. We’re bringing something beautiful to the culture while we’re doing something beautiful for the country. I’m happy to be involved. And I have to start talking Kreyòl lessons.”

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DaBaby, H.E.R., Tyler, The Creator, Leon Bridges & More: What’s Your Favorite New Music Release? Vote!

Music lovers had some great new releases to dive into this week, including standouts from DaBaby, H.E.R., Tyler, The Creator, and more. Billboard wants to know which one tops your list!

This week, Charlotte superstar DaBaby dropped “Ball If I Want To,” his second solo single of 2021 after “Masterpiece.” Clocking in just under two minutes, the raunchy new track is filled with not-so-thinly veiled sexual innuendo, and finds the rapper making his music video directorial debut with a rowdy high school-themed visual.

On the heels of winning a Grammy Award for “I Can’t Breathe” and an Academy Award for “Fight For You,” H.E.R. releases her engrossing new album, Back of My Mind. The R&B star’s debut full-length spans 21 tracks and features appearances by Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Baby, Thundercat, Chris Brown, DJ Khaled, and others. On the set, she explores new terrain as a vocalist, particularly on ballads like the yearning “My Own” and the wounded “Mean It.”

Ahead of the release of his next album, Call Me If You Get Lost, Tyler, The Creator offers the new track “Lumberjack,” which seemingly masquerades as a straightforward rap song flexing fame and fortune. But a closer looks reveals that it’s an irrepressible Tyler tune, with ad-libs from DJ Drama and outlandish wordplay.

So which new music release is your favorite? Vote below!

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